A Cost-Effective, Self-Masking Spectrophotometric Platform for Selective Uranium Monitoring in Environmental Waters

Abstract Sustainable and cost-effective UV-Vis spectrophotometric methods have been developed to detect uranium in aqueous solutions by utilizing meso-tetra(4-carboxyphenyl)porphyrin (C4TPP) as an optical sensor. Optimization results indicate that a 0.05 M triethanolamine (TEA) buffer at pH 6 establishes the ideal environment for accurate uranium quantification down to 0.083 ppm. Significantly, the TEA buffer functions as a natural masking agent for competing metal ions like ( +2 Ni, 3+ Fe, 2+ Pb, 2+ Zn, and 2+ Co) without requiring toxic reagents such as EDTA, while sustaining stable detection performance across varying operational temperatures.